Our Love Story - Part 5 - And So It Began
(I’m telling the story of how my husband and I met, dated, and got married. If you missed it, you can read Part 4 HERE.)
That next day was a super busy day as everyone packed up to leave for Christmas break. Matt and I didn’t get much of a chance to see each other except very briefly. Before I knew it, we were both off to our separate locations - me to Colorado, him to New Brunswick. Christmas break was a whole five weeks - five LONG weeks. We hadn’t had a chance to exchange contact info (remember, this was the days before social media, cell phones, and the like were really common), so we had no contact for the entire break.
I decided it was time to tell my family about him. I had never come home talking about a boy before, so my mentioning Matt was a huge deal. I remember one night, riding in the car with my mom, and saying, “So, there’s this boy…” She immediately got very excited and said, “Ah! We need to get you a new dress!” She was referring to a new formal dress. Each semester at school we had several “Fine Arts” programs that we were required to attend and dress up in formal wear. These programs were anything from a play by Shakespeare to orchestral concerts. Since we were on a Christian campus, this was a big dating opportunity for everyone. And so we did just that. My mom, sister, and I went dress shopping. I picked out a nice red dress, hoping that the first time I wore it would be on a date to a Fine Arts with Matt. (Spoiler alert - I did. I wore it to the Valentine’s Fine Arts. See picture.)
As I was home doing all of this, Matt was back at his home telling his parents all about this girl named Emily from Colorado.
Christmas break finally ended and I was never so excited to go back to school. The first day back on campus I purposely searched for him (making it seem like I wasn’t, of course). It didn’t take long for me to find him. We said, “hi” to each other, and just as I was going to leave he asked me to supper. I gladly accepted and rushed back to my room to tell my friends. As the time to meet for supper approached, I suddenly got very nervous. This was now uncharted territory for me - me interested in a guy and him reciprocating! So I did what any girl would do. I gathered my friends and brought them with me to our supper date! We laugh about it now. It is funny to hear Matt describe what it was like to be expecting a meal with just me, and instead seeing me walk up with my small army of friends (I think I brought about 5 girls with me). And what is even funnier is I did this for the next two weeks when he would ask me to a meal.
Finally, after he had been patient enough with my nervous antics, he asked me to supper, only this time he specified for me to come by myself. I laughed and said, “Sure.” I still apologize to him about that. I was just a silly girl who had no idea what she was doing.
It was at this point that I felt I needed to sit him down and tell him all about me and my health. At that time, I was on a “good run” and my back was not causing issues. So most people didn’t know I had any health problems. But, since it is such a big part of my life, and it would always be a factor, it was only fair that Matt knew it all before things got too serious. So I sat him down one night and told him all I had been through. I warned him that I wasn’t sure about being able to have children. I mentioned to him that quite possibly there would come a day when I would not be able to walk. (Somehow I always knew that day would come - I just didn’t think it would happen in my 30’s!)
I was VERY nervous to tell him all of this. I thought for sure he would think it would be too much and he would decide to walk away. As scared as I was of that happening, I figured it would be better to happen now than later on. Once I laid it all out for him, I sat back in my chair waited for his answer. Without blinking an eye, he said something like, “Knowing all that makes me admire you even more. Whatever you go through, we can get through it together with God’s strength. None of that bothers or scares me.” Wow. I was relieved to hear those words! (I would also later find out his mom had some pretty big health struggles his whole life, so he was not a stranger to families dealing with life-altering health issues.)
And thus began the next few months of us getting to know each other better. We started doing all we could together: sitting together at church, eating all meals, spending free time, and talking on the phone. We started studying the Bible and praying together. He wrote me notes and poems that made my heart go “pitter-patter.” And on March 10, 2004, we made our dating “official.” There was no hesitation by that point as I was completely smitten. I still had no idea what I was doing, I just knew that I very much enjoyed every second I spent with him.
We both were very happy. But we had yet to say those three all-important words that everyone longs to hear…
Click HERE for Part 6.